Over Shadowed
by LittlelazyCat
Summary: His whole life, Mello had been in second place... but what happens when the new girl steals the spotlight? Mello X OC
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Valentine's Day. A holiday for people to either be caught up in love or wish they had it.

For Mello, he was just in it for the candy. He lifted his trademark milk chocolate bar to bite off the corner, and elbowed Matt in the process.

"Hey!" Matt swore under his breath, trying to win back first place on his stupid Mario kart. Mello just rolled his eyes, and then bumped him again, this time on purpose.

"Quit it!" Matt yelled.

"Quiet!" hissed Linda on Mello's left. "She's coming!"

Currently, most of the residents at Wammy's were all crammed into the common room or crowding the stairs, leaning over the banister in their attempt to see the newcomer. Every time there were the same questions; will they be smarter than Near? What happened to them? What are they like?

As if on cue, the new girl stepped through the door. The first impression was shy and timid. Chocolate-colored hair that reached the small of her back framed her pale face, and her eyes, which were red from crying, were a brilliantly violent green. She wore a simple green t-shirt that made her eyes pop even more, with jean shorts that were a simple faded blue. But the most prominent and eye-catching thing about her appearance were her arms and legs, the only things that marred her admittedly pretty appearance.

Mello had seen kids come to Wammy's traumatized and injured, some even in wheel chairs. But she was different. All along her arms and legs were bruises of every shade, scrapes ranging from paper cuts to bandaged and stitched up because they were so large and deep. Mello noticed her slight limp on her right foot, and her two small fingers on her left hand were bandaged together like they had been sprained or broken.

But the curious thing was that she didn't hide it. Wearing shorts during February in England was odd, and he wouldn't even be surprised if she had deliberately worn that outfit, as if to say that I've been through some bad crap, so don't mess with me.

As if she had been reading Mello's mind, she put on a confident smile that battled with her red eyes but overall made her appearance more appealing.

Matt must have seen him staring, because he muttered under his breath, "Happy valentine's day, Mello."

**Hi guys. Sorry it's short, but I wanted to get the Valentine's Day part of the story up on Valentine's Day. Yay for defying procrastination!**

**I'm sorry guys, but no matter how hard I look on eBay I can't find the rights to death note. ^-^**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

People stared, some people's mouths agape like dead fish. Some, including this one girl, had their hands gently pressed over their mouths. Most looked shocked or empathetic, but the blonde next to the girl was different. He (she?) looked at me with a sort of smirk, as if curious about how I got into my state. To see one person not take me as a sad sight was amazingly better than being treated like a mutt in the rain.

I almost didn't notice when I cracked a grin.

I followed Roger into what must have been his office; he explained that Wammy's was a special orphanage for gifted children. He said that when I take my test tomorrow, it would determine whether or not I got to stay.

I nodded, and he showed me to my temporary room. Without even bothering to unpack what little possessions I had, I flopped onto the bed and slept.

Word and gossip spreads fast throughout Wammy's. Currently there was a rumor that Roger told our science professor who told Gossip who proceeded to live up to her name by telling everybody that the new girl is taking her test tomorrow. Normally kids who came here had a week before taking the IQ test, sometimes more if they were traumatized. But the girl with injuries along her arms and legs apparently wasn't traumatized at all, and taking the test tomorrow.

Were there more secrets that the new girl was yet to show?

Mello was distracted by Matt falling down a full flight of stairs. Rolling his eyes and munching on chocolate, he helped his best friend up. Tomorrow would be interesting.

I felt that morning came all too fast. I could've sworn I'd collapsed only five minutes ago, but the clock read otherwise.

What had woken me? Then I heard it again. My sister. It was Saturday, wasn't it? So why was she waking me? With a sigh, I stood and opened the door.

Except that it wasn't my sister. No, it was an old man. At first I was confused, then it all came back; they were dead. I was at Wammy's. If I failed this test, then I'd leave, go home to nobody. Before I could resist, salty tears ran down my cheeks. I hastily wiped them away, trying not to flinch as they absorbed into my numerous cuts. Roger was completely silent, but I appreciated that. I didn't want sympathy. Not after what happened.

"I'm sorry. It's just… I thought you were my sister." I gave a shaky sigh.

"You can wait until tomorrow to take the test."

"No, no… todays fine."

Moments later we were sitting in the same office, but this time a smaller student desk was set up next to Roger's ornate one. On top was a stack of papers, which I then learn are my tests.

I pass math easily. It's my best subject.

On my language test, my reading skills make up for my bad French.

I pass science, but I take a while.

I also take smaller ones on philosophy and such, but when I think I'm done there's one more test; I am handed a case file.

"Did you hear?"

"She's better than Mello!"

"Tied with Near!"

"I heard that she passed the case file test in less than five minutes!"

There's a pounding in my ears. All of my time here was spent trying to be better than Near; I had never thought that the girl with chocolate hair, apparently called Luck, could have tied with him. Why had I ever thought that we could possibly be friends?

There's a pounding in my ears, which I'm pretty sure is from my heart leaping up into my throat.

"All these years Mello's been competing with Near- beating him up sometimes! I never thought that the new girl would tie with him! But of course, Mello automatically considers you an enemy- I'd stay away from him unless you want to get beaten to a pulp!" Gossip laughed, as if we were talking about a sitcom and not me with the possibility of adding more bruises to the madness. "Oh, I love your hair- it's so pretty and all! Don't you wish the walls were an exciting color? Tan is so boring-wouldn't it be more fun if they were pink? Well, here's your room-see you later!"

I shut the door behind me, glad to be free of Gossip and embracing the silence. Now that I would be really staying here, I actually noticed the room- a bookcase, a dresser, a plain white bed, a desk, and a bathroom. There was a window overlooking the gigantic yard, with the view of a gigantic willow tree.

I unpacked my few possessions from my backpack; a worn old jacket, oversized sweatpants, jeans, a much worn copy of _The Hobbit_, and a very small stuffed owl. I rooted around the bottom of the bag for anything else, for a while finding nothing but trash. But eventually I found my only hairband, chapstick, a brush, and finally a piece of paper so wrinkled and crumpled and uncrumpled that it was soft and amazingly fragile. I smiled at its faint image, originally in pencil but now a very faded grey line. Carefully I folded it into perfect halves, and then placed it into the cover of my book.

If there was anything more precious to me in this world, I was yet to find it.

**Hello humans and shinigami,**

**Second chapter up on second day of this story! *cue miracle sounding music***

**I checked craigslist to see if they had the rights to DN, but they didn't. **


	3. Chapter 3

Over the course of the next four days, I discovered the insane amount of work that we had to do in our classes. Often I would stay awake deep into the night, studying French, doing pages of calculus and trigonometry, and writing essays and case reports.

Everywhere I went outside my secluded haven of a room, I received stares. Most were curious, but as soon as I noticed they would look away, embarrassed. Mello, who turned out to be the guy I saw on my first day, would glare at me in math. Then Near, who apparently I had tied with, would stare at me as if he was studying me. I hadn't talked to him until today, though. Our professor had put us into pairs for solving a more difficult case, and even though he said that the partners were picked randomly, Near and I had obviously been paired on purpose. With a sigh, I picked up my bag, flinched as I tweaked one of my countless bruises, and sat at the table where Near was playing with a lock of his white hair.

Our teacher announced that we could go anywhere to work on the case, but that it was due in one hour. Points would be deducted if it was late.

After a pause, Near looked up. "Hello."

"Hi." I placed the case on the table, which I had already read. In a matter of moments, he had read the information.

"Do you have an idea of who the culprit is?" It was pretty obvious that he had already narrowed it down.

"Most likely it was Liza."

"89%."

"She also must have had an accomplice."

"I had also come to that conclusion."

I had been about to answer, when suddenly I noticed that the room was oddly quiet. When I turned around, everyone was silent and staring at us, including the teacher. As if something had been switched back to life, everyone immediately turned and started talking. Our teacher started shuffling papers.

"Let's go somewhere else."

Moments later I opened the door to my room, a residence where the only evidence to my existence was a slightly messy bed with my owl stuffed animal and French notecards on my desk. After closing the door, I turned to Near.

"I think its Ben." He stood, silent. "The accomplice, I mean."

"What makes you think that?" I pulled out the pictures, which Near hadn't seen yet. One was a shot of the victims Alice and Ben, the others close ups of their wounds.

"There's a clear sign of a struggle on Alice."

"She does have significantly more bruises." You could almost see the gears turning in Near's head.

"But all that's on Ben is the fatal wound in the neck, and a bite mark on his arm."

"So Ben used brute force against Alice, who bit him."

"After a small scuffle, Liza finally killed her."

"Then she killed Ben-"

"So no one could rat her out."

Not even 15 minutes later, we had typed up the report in the library and turned it in to our Professor. Near muttered something about doing a puzzle, and I decided to go outside. The weather was as gloomy as always, but the cold wind was nice on my always sore arms. A small distance away was the willow tree I had seen from my room, the downward hanging branches that were still bare bringing back memories.

"_Rose! Rose, get down!" _In reply she had just laughed, climbing higher. _"Careful! Don't fall!" _I stood there, hands on my hips, trying to be the mother she never had.

"_Okay, Lil! I'll come down!" _But after a moment, I knew she couldn't. Then she started to cry, clinging to the trunk of that willow tree.

"_I'm coming, Rose! Don't cry! I'll get you down!" _But before I had even reached the trunk, it was too late. Her four-year old feet had slipped, and then she was on the ground. _"Oh, Rose! I'm sorry!" _When I reached out and barely nudged her oddly bent ankle, she had cried out. _"I'm sorry, Rose! Oh, I think it's broken! I'm sorry!"_ My seven-year old self was at a loss at what to do. I thought it was my fault.

"I'm sorry." I muttered under my breath, my now fourteen-year old self standing beneath this willow tree. Before I fully snapped back to reality, I had climbed to the lower branches of the tree. Now sitting near the top, I gave a sigh and held back tears. Then there was a voice from below me.

"What do you think you're doing up there?" It was Mello, arms crossed as he scowled up at me.

"Well, last time I checked I was sitting in a willow tree."

He rolled his eyes. "Everyone knows that's _my_ willow tree."

Before I answered, I looked around, moving my head very exaggerated. "I didn't see the 'no trespassing, Mello's property' sign. Sorry."

He rolled his eyes and flipped me the bird. "Just get down here so I can kick your ass."

"No, thanks. I've had enough ass kicking to last a lifetime."

He scoffed. "More like two." His tone got under my skin.

"WELL, IT'S NOT _MY_ FAULT MY DAD BEAT ME UNTIL I ALMOST DIED! AND I'M SORRY WATARI FOUND ME AND BROUGHT ME HERE! AND I DIDN'T MEAN TO MAKE YOU AN ENEMY JUST BECAUSE _I'M_ SMARTER!"

We stared at each other, while I was silently fuming. I had never, _ever_ played the beaten child card. Even when my principal asked me what happened when I showed up to school all scratched up, I had said that a cat had attacked me. But in reality, my father would beat me and my little sister up in his drunken stupor. It had been going on since I was eight and Rose was five, when our mother had died. Somehow in his drunken state our father had worked it out in his mind that we were the ones to blame.

Mello pulled out his signature Hershey's chocolate, then started walking back towards Wammy's.

"If you were anyone else, I would've beaten you to a pulp."

And just like that, Mello became my sort of friend.

**Yay, chapter three ^^**

**At the magical place that is where I live, it's decided to get *bleep*ing cold, dump buckets of snow, and hang icicles everywhere. Yay me, huddled under sweaters and blankets and having my hands numb from typing and not being able to feel my toes. Yay me.**


End file.
